A seated couple, embracing

Sir Edward Burne-Jones

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Burne-Jones likely made this drawing in the mid-1860s when he was sketching the Parthenon marbles at the British Museum, using chalks on colored paper. While a student at Oxford, Burne-Jones and his close friend William Morris decided to give up their theology degrees and instead pursue artistic careers. Since he lacked formal training, Burne-Jones sought advice from Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Ruskin--who lent him prints by Albrecht Dürer to copy--and George Frederic Watts, who advised close study of classical sculpture. Here he develops a figural composition from his interaction with Greek models.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.

Metropolitan Museum of Art